Hidden
by cuethepulse-old
Summary: The Straw Hats receive a message telling them that Vivi has gotten married. Everyone is happy for their friend, except Sanji. Then Usopp and Chopper discover a box of letters hidden under the floor. Letters to Sanji. Letters from Vivi. Oneshot.


Hidden  
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of its characters.

_To the members of the Straw Hat Pirate crew, from the Alubarna palace--_

_Princess Nefertari Vivi would like to formally announce her recent marriage to the royal prince of—_

At that point, he stopped reading. His eyes followed the sentences on the paper, but his mind stayed behind, soaking in those first words.

"Sanjiiii!" Luffy kicked his feet together eagerly. "What does it say? What does it say?"

It took a moment for his mouth to form the words, and they came out sounding hollow.

"Vivi-chan got married."

His lack of enthusiasm went unnoticed as the rest of the crew made noises of surprise and excitement.

"That's great news!" Nami cheered, clapping.

"It deserves a kanpai party!" Usopp declared, much to Luffy and Chopper's delight.

Zoro leaned against the railing of the ship and raised his voice slightly to be heard over the kanpai trio.

"Who was she married to?"

"I don't know."

Zoro raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean you don't know? You have the letter, moron."

Scowling around his cigarette, Sanji snapped, "I don't know, all right?! You want to know so badly, you read the damn letter!"

He threw the paper in the swordsman's general direction before storming into the galley. Zoro watched it fall to the floor of the deck with a frown.

"What's his problem?"

-

With jerking movements, Sanji washed off the dishes from breakfast. He scrubbed at them quickly, noisily, to drown out the voices of his crewmates outside. His heart was pounding erratically, out of anger. But he wasn't angry with Vivi, he realized dully as he fussed over a persistent stain. No, the only one he was angry with…was himself.

-

After their impromptu semi-celebration over Vivi's news, Nami sent the boys to look around for anything nice to send back to their friend, while she counted out how much currency they had, in case they had to buy something instead. Luffy went to check out the storage room, along with Zoro to keep him focused, and Usopp and Chopper went down to the men's bunk. Usopp went through the piles of his tools and art supplies, chucking some things over his shoulder haphazardly. Chopper closed his medical kit, finding nothing that would qualify as a present, and was about to move on when he noticed a spider under his hammock. He yelped and quickly backed away from it, causing him to trip over a hammer that Usopp had tossed aside. He landed with the floor with a hollow-sounding _thunk_. Usopp looked over his shoulder.

"You okay, Chopper?"

"Ngh…" the reindeer muttered as he sat up, rubbing his head. He didn't bother to find out what he had slipped on, instead looking down at the floor where he had landed. "That didn't sound right…"

Chopper tapped his hoof against it, frowning thoughtfully at the hollow sound it made. Usopp's eyebrows raised in curiosity and he abandoned his search to join the doctor. Chopper tapped it again, more firmly, and gasped a little when he realized the plank was loose. The two exchanged shaky glances, and then they slowly, _slowly_, lifted up the plank. Underneath it was a wooden box. And inside that box were letters. Letters to Sanji.

"M-Maybe we should put those back, Usopp," Chopper said, glancing around nervously. "He'd be mad at us if he knew!"

But Usopp was grinning deviously and had already taken the stack of letters into his hands. As he read, however, the look of mischief on his face changed into one of shock.

"Wait a minute…! This is…!"

_Dearest Sanji,_

_The letter was beautiful. I haven't seen you in over a year, but when I read your words it was just like being on the _Going Merry _again. You haven't changed a bit! I'm flattered that you continue to think of me. To be honest, you haven't left my thoughts much at all, either. _

_I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond to you, but receiving your letter was very unexpected…as were its sentiments. I've been wondering how to reply, but I didn't like anything I came up with. So I decided to do it the only way I could agree with, the simplest way: I love you, too._

-

Shakily, Sanji lit a cigarette and held it to his lips. He leaned against the counter, raising his hand to rub his creased brow. He knew it shouldn't have been such a shock. He tried to remind himself that hundreds, thousands, millions of girls get married every day. It was no big deal.

"…Ah, who am I fooling?"

He released an annoyed breath, a small puff of smoke. Yes, girls did get married every day. But not this girl. This girl had been…

He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply.

She had been his.

He started to cough. He turned around, gripped at the counter and hung his head as the coughs shook his shoulders. The cigarette fell to the floor and he put it out with his foot.

She had been his once, but never again.

-

_Dearest Sanji,_

_I dreamed about you again last night. My sleeping mind doesn't seem to care that you've never actually kissed me. In any case, it manages to simulate it decently enough. I both love and hate the way everything seems so real in dreams. While the warmth I feel in your arms is stirring and wonderful, it's such a disappointment to wake up beside Carue instead._

_I wish you were here. Or that I was there. Either way, it doesn't matter, I just want to feel you, to be with you. These dreams are not helping the situation in the least. All I can think about is the feeling of being filled by your—_

Blushing profusely, Usopp let out a nervous laugh and quickly hid the rest of that letter from Chopper's eyes.

"What? What did you say?"

"Uh, I don't know! I can't read her writing there!" He laughed again, shuffling through the rest of the papers. "Let's read a later one, shall we? Let's see here…"

_Dearest Sanji,_

_Your last letter has turned my world upside down. Or, right side up, perhaps? I never thought I'd hear—er, rather, see—those words from you. Not that you hadn't hinted at it. No, you're not as subtle as you may think. But I always thought that you were being…well, silly, to be honest. Playful. But to know that you were actually serious about it! Sanji, my heart has not stopped fluttering since I received it!_

_I can't help but wonder how these past days have been for you, waiting for my reply. I'm feeling tempted by a wicked demon to not even respond in this letter and make you wait some more. But I suppose I'm as much a romantic as you are, because I myself can't wait to give you my answer._

_Yes. Yes, yes, and a thousand times more, yes. Sanji, I will gladly marry you._

"Wh…"

Usopp and Chopper stared at the letter with wide eyes, mouths hanging open.

"Wh-Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat????!!!"

-

Sanji lifted his head, hearing the exclamation from underneath the floor. He hazily recognized that the voices were of Usopp and Chopper, and so, he decided to ignore it. He returned his attention to the pot he was filling with water for that night's stew dinner.

Down in the men's quarters, a curious Luffy and an indifferent Zoro had joined Usopp and Chopper to find out what the commotion was about.

"Look!"

Usopp thrust the recently read letter into Luffy's hands. The captain's eyes scanned it briefly before he shrugged.

"Yeah, it's paper. So what?"

Usopp pointed urgently at the last paragraph on the page and hissed, "Read it!"

Zoro quirked an eyebrow as the rubber boy let out a whoop of surprise.

"What is it?"

"I didn't know Sanji and Vivi got married! When did this happen and why didn't anybody tell me about it?!"

Usopp whacked him lightly on the arm.

"They obviously didn't get married, stupid!"

"What girl in her right mind would want to marry him?" Zoro said dryly, picking the letter from Luffy's hands.

"So then…what happened?" Chopper asked.

Usopp regarded the stack of letters once more and started to look through them.

"I don't know, but I'm about to find out."

-

_Dearest Sanji,_

_I'm afraid that today I'm the bearer of bad news._

_I know that we've been engaged for several weeks now, but up until this point, I'd never mentioned it to anyone, aside from Carue. I didn't want anyone making a fuss about it, and I knew Father would've wanted to discuss it with us in person. So I was going to wait until the next time you all managed to visit._

_However…today Father wanted to talk to me about that very subject. He said that he felt it was time that I started searching for a suitable partner to share the throne with me. He had this list of all the eligible princes and lords and he was telling me about all of them and their kingdoms, and he was speaking so fast and saying so much that my head was spinning, and I finally had to tell him about us._

_Sanji, he downright denied me the right to marry you. He said that a princess could never marry a pirate, that it would be harmful to her country. It seems that you and the others saving that very country wasn't enough to pardon your piracy in my father's eyes._

_I'm sorry. But I can't disobey him. I have to pick my fights and I know that this one…well, it won't get me anywhere. I'm really so very sorry. I want nothing more than to be your wife. But it isn't meant to be. Not for us. Please forgive me, but I cannot marry you._

-

"Shit."

Sanji ran his bleeding finger under the running water. He frowned. He hadn't cut himself like that in a long time. It seemed that not even cooking would be enough to take his mind away from Vivi, at least, not completely. But then again, when had she left his mind? Sometimes, she was all he ever thought about – her smile, her laugh; how much he wanted to feel the touch of her hand; how much he wanted to know the sound of her voice saying those three words. But he would never know any of that.

He sighed and slowly turned the water off. He glanced at the vegetables he'd been slicing and figured they'd be safe for at least a few minutes while he found Chopper and got his finger bandaged. There was no way he was going to chance getting blood in the stew. Not that those louts would even notice, he thought wryly, smirking a little. He quietly left the galley.

-

_Dearest Sanji,_

_I hope this letter finds you in good health. It's been a while since I've written to you. It's been even longer since you've written to me._

_I know you're hurt, Sanji, but I wish you'd at least send me something. Even one word. Maybe I deserve receiving nothing from you, but…please, Sanji, it's killing me. I miss you. I long to hear from you. Even if you tell me you've moved on. Even if you tell me you despise me now. Anything would be better than this._

_I'm only asking for this once. After this letter, if I still don't hear from you, I won't write to you anymore. I'll leave you alone. It'll be hard for me, but I'll do it if that's what you want._

_I still love you, Sanji. Whether you choose to believe that or not is up to you, but I know that I do. And I know I always will._

_Forever yours,_

_Vivi_

-

The occupants of the men's quarters sat in silence for a few minutes, taking in the last words of the last letter. Luffy closed his eyes. Usopp hung his head. Chopper sniffled. Zoro crossed his arms over his chest.

"So…the pervert-cook got dumped."

"What was that, marimo-head?"

The four caught individuals slowly turned to their heads to face the dark and deadly glare from the chef whose privacy they'd invaded. Usopp gulped.

"Uh, say, Sanji? You've heard of snails, right?"

"Get the hell out of here before I filet all of you."

An instant later, he was alone in the room. He made his way to the pile of letters, kneeled down to pick them up. He regarded them through half-lidded eyes.

"I should probably burn this," he murmured to himself.

He straightened them out to do just that when two words of one particular letter caught his eye.

_Forever yours._

He looked at the two words for a long time, until they started to blur together. Something stirred inside of him, an understanding that he hadn't realized before.

_I still love you, Sanji._

She'd gotten married, yes, but that didn't mean that her feelings had changed.

_…I always will._

They were still in love. But they'd never be able to say it to each other. She'll never be able to show it. They'll never be able to share it. But they'll feel it still. Always.

He returned the letters to their box and took out a sheet of blank paper. Ignoring the sting of tears in the back of his eyes, he found some ink and began to write.

_Dearest Vivi,_

_Congratulations on your marriage. I hope this letter finds you in good health._

_I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond to you…_

-end-


End file.
